Simon Fraser University

This was the winning entry in a design competition held in 1963. Only two years later, the University opened to the first 2000 students. Unlike any previous university, Simon Fraser University is a direct translation into architecture of the expanding fields of knowledge that defy traditional boundaries, of the vital role of the university as both challenger and conservator of human culture and of the university community as one in constant intellectual, spiritual, and social interchange. The plan and architecture of Simon Fraser University derive more from a basic approach to education, to human relationships at a university and to the university's role in the culture at large, than from a particular aesthetic approach. The issue is to redefine the university in contemporary terms, to make it meaningful to the community and natural to the place where it sits. The idea of universality and interrelationship was fundamental to the concept of the university (text from website architect).